Water supply and sanitation in Colombia
| Colombia: Water and Sanitation | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| Data | ||
| Water coverage (improved definition) | 94% (2010) | |
| Sanitation coverage (improved definition) | 82% (2010) | |
| Continuity of supply | 20 hours out of 24 (average 2003) | |
| Average urban water use (l/c/d) | 60 (2006) | |
| Average urban water and sewer bill (US$/month) | 11.40 (2006) | |
| Share of household metering | n/a | |
| Share of collected wastewater treated | 25% | |
| Annual investment in WSS | US$10/capita | |
| Share of self-financing by utilities | 26% | |
| Share of tax-financing | n/a | |
| Share of external financing | n/a | |
| Institutions | ||
| Decentralization to municipalities | Full, since 1989 | |
| National water and sanitation company | None | |
| Water and sanitation regulator | Yes (one single-sector, one multi-sector) | |
| Responsibility for policy setting | Ministry of the Environment, Housing and Regional Development | |
| Sector law | Yes (1994) | |
| Number of urban service providers | More than 1,500 | |
| Number of rural service providers | More than 12,000 | |
This article was last updated on substance in August 2012. However, sections of this article are older and may need to be updated. Feel free to update this article wherever needed.
Water supply and sanitation in Colombia has been improved in many ways over the past decades. Between 1990 and 2010, access to improved sanitation increased from 67% to 82%, but access to improved water source's increased only slightly from 89% to 94%. In particular, coverage in rural areas lags behind. Furthermore, despite improvements, the quality of water and sanitation services remains inadequate. For example, only 73% of those receiving public services receive water of potable quality and in 2006 only 25% of the wastewater generated in the country underwent any kind of treatment.
A comprehensive sector policy, introduced in 1994, aimed at increasing water and sanitation investments through targeted transfers to municipalities, improving service quality and efficiency by promoting private sector participation in the poorest parts of the country where utilities were not performing well, the establishment of autonomous regulatory agencies at the national level, increased cost recovery, and protecting the poorest through cross-subsidies in the form of area-based tariffs. This same policy has been pursued and refined by different consecutive governments.
Responsibilities in the sector are divided as follows:
Cost recovery in the sector has improved substantially. Between 1990 and 2001, the average tariff for water and sanitation in Colombia increased from US$0.32/m3 to US$0.81/m3, equivalent to an increase of 153%. As a result, 24% of investments were self-financed by utilities in 2004. Other features of the sector are the existence of some large, well-performing public companies; a strong and stable participation by the local private sector in service provision; and some well-performing community-based organizations in peri-urban areas.
Recently, the government of Álvaro Uribe has initiated a number of complementary policies to accelerate increases in access to water and sanitation services, such as the strengthening of the roles of departments in the governance of the sector, a program for marginal urban neighborhoods and an increase in investments for wastewater treatment.
In 2015, in Colombia 91% of the population had access to "improved" water, 97% and 74%, in urban and rural areas, respectively. In 2015, there were still around 4 million lacking access to "improved" water. Regarding sanitation, 81% of the population had access to "improved" sanitation, 85% and 68%, in urban and rural areas, respectively.
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